


you said that you loved us, was that all a lie?

by MyriadMariam



Series: New Mastermind! [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Mastermind (Dangan Ronpa), Gen, Insults, Sorry Not Sorry, Swearing, The Author Regrets Nothing, may be the slightest bit OOC, not really FUN but you know what I mean, this will be fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29022660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyriadMariam/pseuds/MyriadMariam
Summary: "Did you really think plain old me could mastermind an entire killing game?"In which Tsumugi is not the mastermind.
Series: New Mastermind! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129139
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	you said that you loved us, was that all a lie?

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't seen many fics with this mm so I decided to be the change I want to see in the world 
> 
> also this timeline is ever so slightly different to canon (this is a series, the rest is coming...whenever I have time)

"Please tell us you aren't the mastermind, Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer!"

Tsumugi was silent.

"That's the truth of this case, of the killing game itself. Well, Tsumugi?" Shuichi accused.

"Well...what?" Tsumugi asked.

Shuichi drowned out the bickering of the Monocubs, focusing on Tsumugi and his classmates alone. 

"Well, Tsumugi?" Kiibo challenged, pointing triumphantly. "Are there any flaws in Shuichi's logic? If so then...please tell us."

"Flaws? There's a bunch of flaws ALL over it!" Tsumugi countered.

" _Then explain._ " Maki hissed, shooting her a deathly glare.

"You can do it! You can do it, Tsumugi!" Himiko chanted. She crossed her fingers anxiously, hoping and hoping that Tsumugi could somehow defend herself.

But even when she was backed into a corner, even with all of the evidence pointing to her as the Mastermind...Tsumugi looked confident. Excited, even. 

But how?

"I'm sorry, Himiko." reassured a very unapologetic Tsumugi. "But I did kill Rantaro."

The tiny redhead froze, eyes wide. "No..." she breathed. 

"Then... you're the mastermind after all!" Maki growled. "How DARE you!"

"I believed in you..." Himiko shook her head. "Why?! Why would you do this?"

Shuichi surveyed Tsumugi - the mastermind - with grim satisfaction. She had been found out. This killing game could finally end. 

Tsumugi grinned. "I'm sad to say that you're wrong."

_What?_

"Tsumugi, you killed Rantaro - you even ADMITTED to it!" Kiibo interjected. "I fail to see how we are wrong!"

"I wasn't talking to you." Tsumugi turned to a baffled Shuichi. "You. Shuichi Saihara. You're wrong."

"How is he wrong?" Himiko protested. "Shuichi's always right!"

Tsumugi shook her head. "Did you really think plain old me could mastermind an entire killing game?"

"You're....not the mastermind?" Himiko asked hopefully.

"How? That doesn't even make sense." Maki snapped furiously. "You should've been executed. In fact, we should ALL be dead right now for getting the blackened wrong!"

"I could have that arranged." Tsumugi offered slyly.

"But you have to be involved with them somehow." Shuichi deduced. "You killed Rantaro and made Kaede pay for it!"

" _Involved_ with the mastermind?" Tsumugi asked. "Sounds more accurate."

"Well?" Shuichi demanded. "Since you're not the mastermind themselves, you must be..."

"A mole?" Himiko offered.

"Exactly!" Tsumugi chirped. "Good job, Himiko!"

Himiko glowered at the Cosplayer.

"But, if she's not the mastermind...." Kiibo paled. "Who is?"

If Tsumugi wasn't the mastermind....then.... 

Shuichi eyed the remaining students warily. "Could it be....one of you?"

"One of US?" Maki accused. "Do you really think I would be that heartless?!"

"I don't have enough mana to plan all of this!" Himiko whined.

"Then if the mastermind is not one of us...was a body discovery faked?" Kiibo mused.

As the trio began to discuss the executions and the body discoveries, Shuichi found himself staying silent. 

What was the point of finding out who this new mastermind was? Of overcoming this new problem if another would pop up when they least expect it? All it would do is push them closer to the breaking point.

And Tsumugi STILL looked awfully smug, as if this entire situation was a big, big joke and they were the punchline.

"Shuichi looks tired, so I'll let you off easy, okay?" Tsumugi addressed them all. "There is someone I'd like you to meet!"

Tsumugi pulled out a radio from her pocket and lifted it to her smiling lips."Come in!"

The elevator to the trial room immediately opened, cutting through the heavy tension in the air, and...

The remaining students could only look on at the student they watched burn to death. Shuichi could still remember the lumps swelling on his face, the grotesque bug creature ripping its way out of the cub's stomach and the spray of blood erupting from his mouth after being stabbed in the abdomen.

And yet, here he was, looking completely normal. His suit was pristine, his face was clean, even his glasses were intact.

"Gon....ta?" Himiko whispered shakily. "You're alive?" Himiko's eyes shone as a face-splitting grin spread on her face. "Gonta! You're here!"

"Gonta...?" Kiibo gazed at him in complete and utter shock. "You're...." 

And Shuichi could only barely restrain himself from launching himself to Gonta's podium and burying himself in his arms. 

He exhaled softly, eyes brimming with joy. "Gonta...you're alive!"

Gonta was alive.

Shuichi beamed at Gonta, and Gonta simply stared back at Shuichi.

_Gonta was alive._

And Shuichi all too late realised that something was very, very wrong. 

His face lacked the warmth and childlike joy it had held before. Gonta's usual easygoing smile was erased, a grim frown in its place.

He looked scary, not like usual Gonta, with his loud voice and extreme love for bugs, but like he was a different person entirely, and that frightened Shuichi more than he'd like to admit. 

Tsumugi declared something that sounded awfully 'despair-filled', but Shuichi didn't hear. His attention was fixated on the silent, unsimiling Gonta as he began to tremble. The kind, kind entomologist hadn't uttered a word since his arrival, and Shuichi began to grow increasingly anxious of what he would hear if Gonta opened his mouth.

Himiko began to assault him with questions, 'how did you survive?' and 'do you know a way out of here?' and Kiibo gazed at him in a sort of breathless wonder, eyes wide.

"Gonta?" Kiibo asked quietly, the beginnings of a frown forming on his face. "Is everything alright?" 

He noticed Maki narrowed her eyes at him, as if not 100% accepting of his presence. 

"Gonta." Maki finally spoke up. "What are you doing here?"

"I have been awaiting this moment for a long time." 

Gonta's voice was scarily detached, lacking even the smallest amount of emotion or warmth.

Himiko frowned curiously. "'Awaiting'?" 

"Yes, Yumeno. I've been anticipating this event for weeks."

"'Anticipating'?!" Himiko's voice lilted up in shock. "But...nyeh?" 

The small magician was reduced to small shocked sounds at Gonta's increased vocabulary. 

"Why are you so surprised, Yumeno?" Gonta asked lowly, a malicious undertone present that Shuichi didn't quite like. "I thought you were happy I was alive."

"Gonta....you're acting weird." Kiibo muttered, nervous. "What... what happened?"

"What do you THINK the issue is, K1-B0?" Gonta spat, shooting the robot a hostile stare. 

The courtroom became deathly quiet. 

"K1...B0?" Kiibo uttered, disbelieving. " _Gonta_?" 

"K1-B0." Gonta repeated. "What do you think the issue is?"

"Gonta....you're a little scary." Himiko laughed anxiously. "Um...and you're speaking kinda weird."

"Speaking weird?" His eyes flashed with malice. "That caveman speak drove me up the bloody wall." 

Shuichi jolted bolt upright at the sound of Gonta swearing - Gonta _swearing_ \- and fought to keep his composure.

"I don't have time for this." Gonta muttered angrily, before turning to Shuichi. "Surely YOU must know why I'm here."

Of course.

Shuichi didn't want to say it out loud, but Gonta's eyes goaded him into speaking.

"You're the mastermind." Shuichi breathed.

Gonta smiled, a cruel, sinister smile.

"Congratulations."

Shuichi... 

Shuichi felt ice-cold terror pool into his stomach.

He had only felt like this when Kaito stepped out of that Exisal, coughing up blood and urging them to live a better future, and when Kaede gave him a tearful smile, asking him to fulfill his wish.

(what was with his friends promising to stay with him, only to turn around and leave?) 

"Shuichi." Gonta's ominous smile remained on his face, and Shuichi had never HATED the sound of his own name before. "I must say, I'm disappointed."

_Disappointed?_

"B-But....what... _how-_ " Shuichi took a shuddering breath, fighting back tears. "Gonta. Gonta, no. _Please,_ no. It...it can't be..."

"Don't lie to yourself, Shuichi." Gonta narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were better than this."

Shuichi only replied with a choked gasp, the cruelty of his words shocking him into silence.

"Gonta." Maki eyed him with contempt. "I should've seen this coming."

"You really should have." Gonta agreed, nodding absentmindedly. "Shuichi was being pretty pathetic, so I was hoping you wouldn't be."

This time, Shuichi couldn't stop the tears pooling in his eyes.

Kiibo was moments away from coming to Shuichi's defense when a loud noise came from the other side of the courtroom.

"No!" Himiko cried, slamming her fingers over her ears. "No, no, no, no!"

"Himiko..." Kiibo cast the mage a sympathetic glance. 

"No!" she screamed tearfully. "It's not you! It's not you it's not you it's not you!!"

"Then how do you propose I survived my execution?" Gonta interrogated, seemingly enjoying Himiko's distraught state. 

"I-"

"I was impaled in the stomach, Yumeno." Gonta snarled lowly. "I was immolated. How would any person survive that?" 

"M-Magic!" Himiko yelled. "It's magic!!"

"It's _magic,_ Yumeno?" Gonta taunted. "I thought you'd gotten over that rubbish."

"But, Gonta.." begged Himiko, and Shuichi could see that she still didn't believe this, she still didn't think Gonta was the mastermind, and it filled him with sorrow.

"You...told us you loved us." she finished, sniffling. "You said that you loved us. You....said that." 

"Was that all a _lie?_ "

Gonta sighed so hard the air clouded with his disapproval. 

That was answer enough. 

"A-Anyway..." Tsumugi started, but Gonta shot her a _look,_ and she ceased movement.

"I know, I know, we're off track." he grumbled. "I didn't expect the surviving students to be such wrecks."

Before Shuichi could even react to that statement, Gonta had swiftly continued. 

"I knew about Tsumugi's involvement since the start. And I knew that Kaede didn't really kill Rantaro. However, I didn't hesitate to let her die. Somebody like her didn't deserve a full life."

"Excuse me?!" Shuichi protested. "Kaede deserved to live!"

"Maybe your Kaede did. But not the REAL Kaede."

"The real Kaede? What are you even talking about?!" Kiibo questioned.

"Shirogane, you didn't tell them?" Gonta shot her a steely glare. "Must I do everything myself?"

"I'm so sorry! Gokuhara, please forgive me! Please!" Tsumugi apologised profusely. "It won't happen again! I promise!"

"Don't let it happen again." Gonta ordered.

"I won't! I won't!" Tsumugi pleaded, tearing up.

Tsumugi's desperate pleas made Shuichi sick to his stomach.

"Every single one of you _volunteered_ to be here. You asked to be in Danganronpa." Gonta summarised. 

"Dangan...ronpa?" Kiibo uttered. 

"Danganronpa." Gonta repeated. "This entire world you're in. This killing game, and your identities. A fictional world."

Gonta smiled, that same sinister grin. "It's all a lie."

A whisper - a tiny, tiny whisper broke the thick silence.

_"It's not true."_

Maki Harukawa shook her head, glaring at Gonta with all of the rage in the world.

"That... that's NOT TRUE!" Maki exclaimed. "I would never agree to this!"

"But you _did_ , Harukawa." Gonta replied curtly. "Even Momota did. Let me show you."

"Kaito would never-"

"Quiet." Gonta commanded brusquely.

Gonta flipped a switch, and Kaito appeared on the screen. He leered at us, a crazed look in his eyes.

"I'm not just going to BE in Danganronpa!" He exclaimed heartily. "I'm going to kill everybody and win!"

By the time the video finished, the courtroom was in silence.

"Even the Luminary of the Stars was a Danganronpa fanatic."

No response.

"Don't have the energy to yell?" Gonta sneered.

"Why...am I even here?" Shuichi muttered, voice trembling. "Why did I even make it this far? Why?"

"This is fiction." Gonta stated coldly. "There is no greater meaning. Not in your lives, or in their deaths."

Shuichi could only gaze bleakly at the hulking man before him.

"Soo?" Tsumugi asked. "Have you fallen into despair yet?"

"What?" Himiko mumbled.

"After all, that is why this has gone on for FIFTY-THREE SEASONS!"

Tsumugi pointed at a screen, and in a flash, a myriad of faces flashed on the screen, changing and morphing constantly.

"That's why they look sooo~ happy!" Tsumugi beamed.

The students remained in their desolate silence, but Gonta Gokuhara was undeterred.

"Viewers flock to see your despair. " he continued. "It only makes the viewers more obsessed to see your despair; they watch it just to revel in the depravity of it all!"

Himiko began to weep, muffling her sobs in her hands.

" _This_ is the appeal of Danganronpa." Gonta announced.

Shuichi felt like he had been thrown underwater, the surroundings blurry and muffled, sharp pain blooming in his chest.

The only reason why he even struggled and strived to survive is because of those who have died. For the ones who were murdered too soon, and the ones who killed out of desperation, and to challenge the killing game.

But...none of that was real. He'd been trying so, so, hard for a lie. For a farce. For a performance to be watched and enjoyed by the entire world.

"You're all so quiet now." Gonta noted, staring at them with contempt. "Don't forget it was your own sick desires that landed you here."

"I won't let you get away with this....!" Maki growled. 

"Harukawa-"

Gonta held up a hand, and Tsumugi clamped her mouth shut.

"Harukawa. I did not make you join the killing game." Gonta pointed out. "Do not raise your voice at me." 

"You created the game! I don't care if it kills me, but you will die!" Maki declared.

In that very instant, Gokuhara caught Maki's eye with a fiery glare.

"I could execute you in a thousand different ways." murmured Gokuhara, in that scarily emotionless tone. "I could push every single student here to a point of enough desperation that they could, and would murder you." 

The courtroom instantly became _cold_ , as if the entire room had been doused in frigid water.

"Do NOT raise your voice at me." Gokuhara repeated.

A shuddering breath leaked out of Maki's lips.

"You may blame the outside world, or curse your fates, or even me. But, like I said, we didn't force you to enter the killing game."

"You did. You are the ones that wanted to continue the next season, this cycle of despair. The 'villain' here is not only the outside world....but your own past selves."

"And there is nothing you can do to stop Danganronpa."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sick of people writing Gonta as 'uwu cinnamon bun can do no wrong' so I decided to make him as mean as possible
> 
> hope you enjoyed. I'd love some feedback, this is my first DR fanfic :)))


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